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February at Detroit Institute of Arts features varied Menu of Black History Month Activities - Highlights include filmmaker Julie Dash, Academy Award nominated short films

Thursday, January 10, 2013

(Detroit)—February activities at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) include something for almost everyone. Black History Month brings nationally known filmmakers, artists and musicians to the DIA, including Julie Dash, artist Fred Wilson and bassist Damon Warmack. Black History Month programs are denoted with “BHM.” Exhibitions include Hidden Treasures: An Experiment and Motor City Muse: Detroit Photographs, Then and Now.

Detroit City Chess Club: Fridays, 4–8 p.m.The club’s mission is to teach area students the game and life lessons. Members have won state, regional and national competitions. People wanting to learn how to play chess should show up between 4 and 6 p.m. There will be no teaching between 6 and 8 p.m., but visitors can play chess.

Drop-In Workshops (for all ages)Fridays, 6–9 p.m., Quilting: Learn about quilt patterns and create a sample suitable for framing.Saturdays, Noon–4 p.m., Senufo Painting (BHM): The Senufo people of West Africa are known for paintings of animals on fabric. Create a simple version of this art form using cotton muslin and markers.Sundays, 6–9 p.m., Celebration Masks: During February people from many countries create elaborate costumes to wear in parades and celebrations. Make your own festive mask for any occasion.

Friday Night Live, February 1Music: Trio Nomadian: 7 & 8:30 p.m.Damon Warmack, bass man of choice for many projects by local and national acts, leads his own band performing a mix of jazz, fusion and hip-hop. He has worked in many genres with an array of musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Robert Bradley, Amp Fiddler, Q-Tip, Martha Reeves and others. The group features Warmack (bass), Demetrius Nabors (keyboards) and Nate Winn (drums).

Lecture: Detroit: Living Inside the Forgetting Machine: 7 p.m.Wayne State University Professor of English and American Studies Jerry Herron presents a lecture on Detroit and its relevance and meaning to history, public memory and Americans’ own sense of their past. In conjunction with the exhibition Motor City Muse: Detroit Photographs, Then and Now. Sponsored by the Forum for Prints, Drawings and Photographs

Detroit Film Theatre: 2013 Academy Award Nominated Short Films (ages 17 and older): 7 p.m.The titles haven’t been announced yet, but this popular annual program features this year’s Oscar® nominated shorts in both the animated and live-action categories. For a detailed description, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Saturday, February 2Detroit Film Theatre: DFT 101: Julie Dash Selects: A Retrospective Celebration (BHM): 3 p.m.Filmmaker Julie Dash, director of the classic Daughters of the Dust, will introduce showings of some of her other films. The screenings will be followed by an on-stage interview and discussion with Dash, and a Q&A for the audience. For a detailed description, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $5. Free for DIA members and residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

Family Sunday, February 3Sunday Music Bar: Dinah Washington Tribute featuring Joan Belgrave (BHM): 1 & 3 p.m.Grammy-nominated vocalist Joan Belgrave brings the story of Dinah Washington to life with her unique ability to capture Washington’s contributions to music in jazz, R & B, blues and pop.

Saturday, February 9Lecture: Bernini: Sculpting in Clay: Lessons from an Exhibition: 2 p.m.The expressive clay models that Bernini created as “sketches” offer extraordinary insights into the sculptor’s creative imagination. C. D. Dickerson III, curator of European Art at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, will discuss these models, the subject of an exhibition he is curating at the Kimbell and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and some of the lessons learned. Sponsored by Visiting Committee for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.

Class: Clay: The Potter’s Wheel for Adults Only: 1–4 p.m.Enjoy an introductory potter’s wheel experience in this hands-on class that includes individual guidance and demonstrations. Projects will be fired for pickup at a later date. Class size limited to 12 students. Cost: Members $36, Nonmembers $48. To register, call 313-833-4005.

Lecture: Twenty-First Annual Alain Locke Awards: Speak of Me as I Am (BHM): 2 p.m.In 1999, New York visual artist Fred Wilson received a MacArthur Foundation Award for his site-specific installations known as “museum interventions.” As U.S. artist representative at the 2003 Venice Biennale, Wilson explored the presence of Africans in early Venetian history. Wilson will discuss his work, including a recent DIA acquisition. Sponsored by Friends of African and African American Art

Family Performance: Asian Martial Arts Studio presents Chinese New Year Lion Dance: 2:30 p.m.In honor of the 2013 Chinese New Year, the Asian Martial Arts Studio presents a Classical Southern Style Lion Dance complemented by gongs, drums and cymbals, followed by a demonstration of various Kung Fu forms.

Music: Jade Simmons (BHM): 7 & 8:30 p.m.Classical pianist Jade Simmons continues to explore uncharted territory for classical musicians. She performs music from her new EP, Playing with Fire, featuring music from her collaboration with electronic musician Roburt Reynolds.

Saturday, February 16 Meet Me at the DIA: A Program for People with Early-Stage Dementia and Their Caregivers: 10:30 a.m.–noonPeople with early-stage dementia (including Alzheimer’s) and their caregivers can participate in gallery discussions about art led by DIA staff and volunteers with expertise in this area. Participants are made to feel welcome and comfortable, and discussions are based on the observations and connections made by the group. The program provides opportunities for social engagement and intellectual stimulation in a safe, inspiring environment. Participants are given small prints of DIA artworks to take home so conversations can be continued. Free with museum admission. To register, go to tickets.dia.org. Sponsored by HealthPlus of Michigan

Detroit Film Theatre: Special Event: The Meaning of Hope(BHM): 2 p.m.The Meaning of Hope is a moving, new 20-minute film by Bill Gaskins that extends his acclaimed work in photographic portraiture into cinema, challenges the one-dimensional representations of the City of Detroit through emphasis on the faces and voices of some of its citizens and expands the public’s knowledge of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s thoughts beyond his “I Have a Dream” speech. This special premiere of Gaskins’ film will be followed by an onstage panel discussion moderated by Valerie J. Mercer, DIA curator of the General Motors Center for African American Art. Panel participants will include Gaskins; poet, playwright and 2011 Kresge Eminent Artist Bill Harris and DIA film curator Elliot Wilhelm. Admission is free. Sponsored by the Whitney Foundation

Puppet Performance: Schroeder Cherry presents “Can You Spell Harlem?” (BHM): 2 p.m. Family members help the son of a radio talk show host learn about artists from the Harlem Renaissance in this show by famed puppet artist Schroeder Cherry.

Friday Night Live, February 22Class: Clay: Hand-Building for Beginners (ages 5 and up with an adult): 6–8 p.m.Adults and children can check out the many clay pots and bowls in the galleries, then head to the studio to create their own items. Projects will be fired for pickup at a later date. Class size limited to 16 people. Cost: Members $24, Nonmembers $32. To register, call 313-833-4005.

Music: TBD: 7 & 8:30 p.m.

Detroit Film Theatre: Barbara: 7 & 9:30 p.m.Set during the Cold War era of 1980, this intelligent new thriller from Germany’s Christian Petzold is the story of a physician who is exiled from East Berlin to a small rural town as punishment for applying for an exit visa. Plotting in secret to flee to Denmark with her boyfriend, Barbara does her best to manage a professional, though icy, persona in the presence of her colleagues, while revealing the depths of her compassionate true self only to her patients. For a detailed description, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp Tickets: $7.50; DIA members, seniors and students, $6.50.

Saturday, February 23Lecture: Nature of Narratives in Japanese Art: Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts: 2 p.m.Masako Watanabe, former senior research associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will discuss works in the DIA collection, especially those reflecting sensitivity to nature, and focus on the screen of the Tale of Genji, illustrating Japan's favorite classical tale. Sponsored by Asian and Islamic Art Forum

Detroit Film Theatre: DFT 101 Ornette: Made in America(BHM): 4 p.m.Ornette: Made In America captures the great jazz musician Ornette Coleman’s evolution over three decades. Documentary footage, dramatic scenes and some of the first music video-style segments ever made chronicle the famed performer and composer’s boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon. Among contributors to the film are William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Buckminster Fuller, Don Cherry, Yoko Ono and Jayne Cortez. For a detailed description, visit www.dia.org/dft/schedule.asp. Tickets: $5. Free for DIA members.

Artist Demonstration: Frescos with Hubert Massey (BHM): 2 p.m.Hubert Massey is a Michigan artist noted for collaborating with communities to create art that tells their stories, and is one of the few African American painters working in the true fresco style. His hands-on fresco demonstration is appropriate for all ages and appreciation levels.

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the United States, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through the 21st century. From the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum (Self-Portrait, 1887), to Diego Rivera's world-renowned Detroit Industry murals (1932–33), the DIA’s collection is known for its quality, range, and depth. The DIA’s mission is to create opportunities for all visitors to find personal meaning in art.

Programs are made possible with support from the City of Detroit and residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.